Lana Del Rey on feminism: ‘I’m not relevant enough to discuss it’

Lana Del Rey is a bona fide weirdo. We’re all on the same page about that, right? She was a wannabe popstar who turned moody chanteuse who sings only about pickup trucks, California, excessive drinking and blue jeans… and we love her for it. However, her reticence to discuss actual life issues – especially ones that effect her as a woman and, you know, every other woman in the world, seems kind of bizarre and confusing to me. According to Lana, however, she doesn’t want to talk about things like feminism because she’s not the person to ask.

“For me, a true feminist is someone who is a woman who does exactly what she wants,” she said. “If my choice is to, I don’t know, be with a lot of men, or if I enjoy a really physical relationship, I don’t think that’s necessarily being anti-feminist. For me the argument of feminism never really should have come into the picture. Because I don’t know too much about the history of feminism, and so I’m not really a relevant person to bring into the conversation. Everything I was writing was so autobiographical, it could really only be a personal analysis.”

I mean, I sort of get that. At the end of the day, she’s not an academic or a policymaker or anyone else who SHOULD be held accountable. However, she is a woman and a human being, so she’s 100% relevant. Anyone who’s living and breathing and walking on this earth is relevant, particularly women.

Ah, whatever.

You might also be (not) surprised to learn that Lana really wants to die because she thinks it’ll be a “relief”:

She has also been denounced for video clips that culminate in her death: by drowning, by falling, by choking. The video for “Born To Die” ends with her in a boyfriend’s arms, inert and covered in blood. She agrees that her videos have often been “exploring ways to die,” she said, adding: “I love the idea that it’ll all be over. It’s just a relief, really. I’m scared to die, but I want to die.” The title song of “Ultraviolence” ventures into precarious territory. In an arrangement that melds Baroque dirge and wah-wah guitar, the singer describes herself as “filled with poison but blessed with beauty and rage,” and goes on to quote a fraught 1962 song from the Crystals, “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like a Kiss).”

Wait.. She never said she wanted to be anybody’s role model. Why should she issue pearls of wisdom to all those helpless little zipperheads out there? As Charles Barkley said, “I”m not a role model”. Leave her alone and stop the analysis paralysis.

I think she has a point, people have varying opinions about feminism, she’s got enough money that she doesn’t worry about inequality, some might wonder about the portrayal of gender stereotypes in media, but why would she care? She’s a career woman and she makes a good point: what is feminism when you’re happy with your choices? I don’t know, I get that some women have it bad, where they’re put down because they’re the “weaker sex”, but that’s when we should speak up. Lots of people think about death, yolo.